archived as http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Kirsch_01.doc [pdf]

more related articles at http://www.stealthskater.com/UNITEL.htm

[StealthSkater note: Paul Kirsch edited many of UNITEL's press releases and interviews => doc pdf URL . That's how I initially came to know him. Since then, he went on to work in a major southern California university medical research lab. This is just an archived MS-Word version of his original essay. Original reprints (price $10) of that can be obtained by contacting earthandstars7@yahoo.com or paul.kirsch.tothestars@gmail.com .]

The Exquisite Braid:UFOs, Spirituality, and Progressive Politics

Paul Kirsch and Joseph Burkes, M.D.

Mr. Kirsch would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Steven Greer and Dr. Joseph Burkes upon whose work most of this text is based.

Introduction

We ask you to consider the following with an open mind. Experience has taught us that our thesis is provocative.

Herewith we suggest the creation of a movement for social change. This future movement incorporates the practical methods of approach of Progressive Politics and adds to this the values and techniques of Spiritual practice.

We then propose the addition of a third element -- what we consider the reality of anomalous aerial activity (commonly called "UFOs"). We acknowledge that discussion of UFOs strains credibility. And we will address the skeptics' argument shortly.

This movement for social change can be viewed as 3 strands woven into a single braid and composed of 3 types of people: (a) Progressives, (b) Spiritual adherents, and (c) UFO enthusiasts or witnesses. As a basic overview of our project, we delineate the salient qualities of each in the following way.

(A) Progressives

We observe that Progressives are concerned with the struggle for the "here-and-now". They are interested in social justice and transformation. To achieve this, they apply critical thinking to the problems of the World.

Progressives focus on institutional change in society. We -- as Progressives -- are keenly aware of how institutions can go awry. The disastrous social experiments that turned the last century into a nightmare bare this out (namely Communism).

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The social programs intent on sharing the wealth, promoting universal education, and establishing equality of the sexes were all part of an egalitarian paradigm that were attractive to millions of followers of the "left". However, since selfish, corrupt, materialistic individuals headed those institutions (whether in Russia or China or other parts of the "socialist world"), the chance of bringing in the "good life" was nil. In other words, bad people make the best of institutions bad.

Thus in order for positive change to occur, people need to be uplifted on an individual level so that goof (i.e., "God-ly") people can create God-ly institutions. This leads to a second strand.

(B) Spiritual seekers

Our second group -- the Spiritual seekers -- focus on self-development as a way to change the World. They follow the spiritual path to come to terms with the inequities that exist in the World to come to an acceptance of the limitations of self and to find answers to the eternal questions of why we are here and where we are going.

To effect this, they meditate as a means to bring peace of mind and awareness of self. They are less egotistical and materialistic.

Spiritual seekers may say that "Humankind belongs to the earth" and not the reverse. That is, they take a non-exploitative and humanistic approach. They may see human development taking place over a long period of time. They are concerned with modeling a better World with their very presence. They tend to be apolitical and -- when in groups -- tend to form religions.

We would like to emphasize the differences between what we see as "spirituality" and "religion". That is, fundamentalist Christian, Islamic, or Judiastic groups would certainly make claims to being "spiritual". Nevertheless, because some elements of these fundamentalists are involved in promoting war, racism, tyranny, and intolerance, their classification as "spiritual" should come into question. Spiritual seekers focus on change in self.

(C) UFO enthusiasts

The UFO enthusiasts are often sympathetic to Progressive issues and Spiritual pursuits but have not rigorously incorporated either of their methods of approach. We believe that the reason they are sympathy to both of these concerns lies in the thematic content of the "contact" experience itself.

Those who have had the UFO experience have been exposed to something that may be literally "out of this world" if you accept the ET (Extra-Terrestrial) hypothesis as true. The notion that intelligent life is not merely an aberration (i.e., the freakish result of chance events on an insignificant planet) but rather part of a continuum of Conscious Intelligence that spans the Universe compels the UFO witness to ask profound questions such as

● "Who are we?" ;● "Who are they (i.e., the EET visitors)? ;● "Do we stem from the same Almighty source?" ;● "What can we learn from one another?" ;

and the following question which we will develop in the course of this text:● "Can a dialogue between us (i.e., humans and ET) allow Humanity to survive?"

We believe that the "contact" experience -- whether it be merely a UFO sighting or a highly bizarre, complex face-to-face encounter with alleged alien beings on their craft -- forces the experiencer to see

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the World with fresh eyes. In that emotionally- and spiritually-charged strange state, questions of ethnic and national differences seem petty. And notions of radical change become less threatening.

After all, if one has experienced the "impossible", then other so-called impossible notions (as defined by cynical conventional wisdom) such as world peace and social justice may become viewed as readily achievable.

Many UFO enthusiasts have had unusual experiences. On one hand, they may have great difficulty integrating such experiences into their life. But on the other hand, they may achieve integration fairly quickly. They may respond to these experiences critically or uncritically. They may seek out more unusual experiences or they may not.

But they have a unique perspective that has been added to their repertoire of experiences that the other 2 stands of people do not have. They have been changed by their experience. And that experience is grounded in the body as a deep intuitive sense. They know something profound has happed to them that they can never forget.

UFO experiencers can be viewed as deluded victims of fallacious thinking or gullible, fantasy-prone individuals susceptible to the latest craze. The issue is complicated by charges from both within and outside the UFO community that their sightings and/or experiences relate to advanced and secret military craft or may be non-physical apparitions from another dimension rather than distant space. We will discuss these issues later.

Members of the dominant culture may situate them in the position of a minority group of social outcasts. However, others within the dominant culture may view UFO experiencers as ordinary people who have seen things that simply cannot be readily explained. The books and movies of the past 20-or-so years (such as Whitley Streiber's Communion, Steven Spielberg's "E.T.", and the book and movie "Fire in the Sky") may have paved the way for this latter, more liberalized attitude in the dominant society toward the existence of alien life. The ubiquity of kitsch alien iconography may also have softened public opinion or drained the topic and its enthusiasts of any meaning or social import.

We view them yet another way. Namely that they are uniquely sensitive indivudals whose sensitivity has not only allowed them to have the "contact" experience but also enabled them to acknowledge its importance.

We now ask you to entertain the following notion:

The Exquisite Braid

What if you (1) weave the Spiritual principles of meditation (i.e., awareness of self and environment) with the (2) practical tactics of Progressive political action (i.e., social organizing and social struggle) and combine this with (3) an intense curiosity of the anomalous (that is, with what appears to be extra-terrestrial or extra-human consciousness contact)?

This creates a dynamic that enables Progressives to approach matters in a new way; Spiritual seekers to expand their powers of mind while maintaining whatever faith they chose; and UFO witnesses to bring their ezperiences into the realm of dialogue with others which serves as a basis for future activities.

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Further, we feel that each of the strands of the Braid can reinforce each other. For example, raising awareness of the existence of UFOs (given that one takes them to be of extraterrestrial origin) has the potential for uniting the World -- a Progressive goal.

Equally, we feel that Spiritual development is necessary as a precondition for "contact". That is, for the ETs to have traversed the Universe with enough energy to warp space-time, they must -- of necessity -- not have applied these powers toward self-destructive ends. That they have not destroyed us long ago suggests Spiritual development.

Thus Spiritual training would help "level the play field" (a phrase used by Greet and Burkes), enabling dialog on common ground (again given the admittedly radical assumptions of the existence of alien cultures and their altruistic intent). The potential for worldwide Spiritual development (in the sense of a united community of Humanity) may spontaneously or deliberately (with great effort) be happening anyway in the form of today's seemingly global just movement (or so one might fervently wish).

Equally, it may be of interest to our own survival that the efforts of E.T. contact maintain a Progressive trajectory. Progressive movements demand ending armed conflicts and seek to promote dialogue amongst opposing factions. They believe that advanced technology should be used for peaceful purposes. If increased contact with advanced civilizations were to unfold without Spiritual awareness (i.e., solely via the aggressive and militaristic elite of the World), then any technological advance provided by "contact" would like be used for war against ourselves or with an opponent that is far more sophisticated than us.

Before we go any further, let us digress for a moment and address the skeptical readers. There is an underlying lack of clarity to UFOlogy (i.e., the study of UFOs). This murkiness overlays the reports that come in, the collection of evidence, and the oft-considered thought that the Government knows more than what it is saying. The goal of all ufologists is to dispel this lack of clarity. We share that ambition.

It is worth briefly commenting on the many long-standing arguments used by skeptics and our responses to these arguments. Because we have become so familiar with these arguments and counter-arguments, we have developed a form of shorthand or abbreviation to refer to them. These abbreviations appear as italicized words or phrases when they come up in the text.

Obviously, these arguments have not been resolved or the controversy would not continue. This lack of resolution motivates so many UFO researchers to devote so much of their time and money to a cause that provides so little in return but the satisfaction of acting on their convictions and often experiences. Weary fighters these skeptics and believers!

The skeptic's first argument repeated ad nausium until becomes a kind of mantra is "show me the evidence". One approach to providing evidence is to present radar logs and simultaneous pilot voice recordings of objects performing impossible aerial maneuvers.

This approach was used by an important UFOlogist of the 1960s -- Dr. James McDonald, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Tucson. He collected numerous reports of these cases and decried the lack of academic and government support for rigorous investigation.

This form of evidence was used more recently in a report by FAA Accident Investigations Director John Callahan from the Disclosure Project describing an airline pilot's report of a large object appearing in one place and then appearing a long distance away in a brief period of time. [StealthSkater note:

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such an "impossible" feat was also observed by Larry Maurer and Mike Miller who used that (as well as other alleged seemingly "intentional" events) to form UNITEL, Inc. and develop Macroscopoic Quantum Tunneling (MQT) => "Flying Colors" doc pdf URL-doc URL-pdf ]

But skeptics don't want secondary evidence. They want hard evidence such as a piece of alien material.

So UFOlogists show them that. There have been various examples of extraterrestrial materials that had unique properties and that underwent rigorous analysis. For example, UFO literature mentions a piece was retrieved in Ubutuba, Brazil [1] among others.

But the skeptics are never satisfied. When you show them such evidence, they change their mantra to "show me one more piece of convincing evidence". And this negative mantra extends out to infinity: … "just one more piece" … "just one more piece" …

Then there anecdotes and ground traces of radioactive or burned earth/plant-life (e.g., see reports by the soldiers of the famous UK Bentwaters case doc pdf URL ). But the skeptics aren't satisfied there either and attribute the incident to some prosaic explanation such as a mistaken lighthouse beam. They ignore the damaged trees and radioactive readings. We call this ignoring the evidence. [StealthSkater note: It also could have been deliberately done (i.e., deliberate burning and planting of radioactive material) as part of some psychological test of soldiers guarding top-secret munitions who are exposed to an unknown element (i.e., a "UFO").]

Skeptics such as Stephen Grinspoon in his recent book Lonely Planets comes ever so close the line of recognizing the dogmatism of the dominant paradigm in referring to his own anaomalous experiences. He describes a patch of purple light that he observed which glowed and shifted in the sky [2]. But he then states that "expectations shape experience". And if one looks for the rational explanation, then one will always find it [3].

Indeed. So rigid is the bias that radar logs (that one can touch and feel and read) and simultaneous voice recordings describing structured craft are so other or forbidden that they don't exist. But to the skeptics, there is never enough adequate evidence to accept the ET hypothesis. To them, accompanying anecdotes are unworthy and box marked "unknown" always remains.

In any other field, if something "looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck", then the "least unlikely hypothesis" (this wonderful wording is that of Jim McDonald) is that "it is a duck". We say that the skeptics are afraid of taking the next step.

Perhaps the skeptic's hesitancy may boil down to his/her second argument (or mantra) which s that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." At first, this argument seems reasonable. This popular skeptic's notion has served well as a wall beyond which no further questioning may proceed.

Yet we view thing another way. That is: extraordinary claims require extraordinary investigations. These investigations should be public and open to social and physical sicnetists who are conservative but without bias.

Skeptics may be reluctant to accept "conspiracy" theories. But evidence of a government UFO cover-up has been well illustrated in many books. For instance in Firestorm by Ann Druffel, a famous case from the 1960s is described. A leaked memo meant to be kept confidential by a member of the Condon committee (a government-sponsored project to investigate UFO claims) states:

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"The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that to the public, it would appear a totally objective study. But to the scientific community, it would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be object but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer." (memo from Robert Low to Dean James Archer [4])

Why would the Government want to trick the people on this issue? Also, many UFO researchers have reported surveillance or subtle harassment by unknown Government agencies. Why would the Government have any interest in groups in foundation was based on an erroneous premise? Would the Government spy and wiretap groups who believed the Earth was flat or unicorns existed? [StealthSkater note: to play the role of "devil's advocate", I'm thinking counter-intel disinformation to lead prying eyes away from the real truth. Or to hint that the cause of something (like cattle mutilations) was the result of those damn aliens (and not to cover up germ warfare experiments). Or to use "reverse psychology" to obviously "cover-up" in an attempt to flush out foreign spies (as some have alleged what was behind Roswell).]

Still, neither the skeptics nor the believers have reached a checkmate in the game. Many UFOlogists believe that a critical mass of public pressure would lead to Congressional inquiry. This in turn would overturn elite denial and change the tide of public opinion.

While the skeptics want startling physical evidence before the initiation of Congressional inquiry, we argue that this evidence may only appear after the "Powers-That-Be" are forced to release it. The politics of UFOlogy, therefore, focus on "cracking the ice". We praise the efforts (UFO political campaigner and director of UFO-lobbying group X-PPAC) for his work in this area.

Other arguments addressing the skeptical viewpoint will be discussed throughout this text. We acknowledge that the stalemate between skeptics and believers may at first seem to weaken our argument for the creation of the 3-part Braid. However, we intend to illustrate that such weakness leads to greater support for the hypothesis when one actively seeks -- and finds -- UFOs. This will be discussed later. Nevertheless, the reader may rest in his/her seat as much of the present text explores the dynamics of ignored existing evidence.

How diffcult, then, would it be to combine the apparently diverse strands of UOlogy, Spirituality, and Progressive Politics? Gandhi's struggle for independence from Britain -- merging the practice of non-violence and meditation with political action -- is one such example (if only a partial analogy).

There are also many well-established faith-based groups such as the American Friends Service Committee and the Catholic Worker movement. On a more limited scale, there are several movements in the U.S. today that combine political activism and spiritual awareness. One example is The Green Sangha movement (which combines "green" politics with Buddhist Sangha practice) [5]. We have just added another element (UFO contact) for reasons which will be explained later.

Radical Times Require Radical Solutions

Now let us review and elaborate. We posit a new movement in which● the UFO movement is viewed as a political movement with underlying Spiritual themes (given

that one accepts the ET hypothesis or is willing to withhold judgment for the present movement);

● the Progressive movement is altered by the study of UFOs with underlying Spiritual practices;● Spiritual practices are guided by Progressive methods and an inquiry into the Anomalous.

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In order to bring these movements together, some obvious obstacles need to be addressed. To start, Progressives uniformly dismiss the reality of UFOs. We suggest that this curt dismissal needs to be scrutinized carefully. Therefore we ask "Why do most Progressives dismiss UFOs?" Our observations suggest that there are 2 categories of dismissal.

(A) For Progressives, mysticism and UFOs are considered too "far out".

They fear that by working with the UFO issue, they will diminish their credibility and loose their hard-earned respect. If they do not immediately write-off the subject as irrational and are willing to allow some dignity for the UFO issue, they feel that they are too burdened by other pressing issues of social injustice and do not wish to take on yet another difficult task. In short, they are unwilling to deal with the UFO issue as an integral part of planetary concern. (We will address this category of concerns later.)

(B) It is not an issue that even appears on the general social docket.

In regards to this second cause for dismissal, we assert that UFOs threaten elites as a challenge to their power. They think that only one group of people (i.e., neo-conservative capitalists) should be controlling things and they are it.

But the military, corporations, and those who pull the strings of power in Washington, DC don't have all answers in regards to unexplained phenomenon. Therefore, they are silent. To acknowledge the existence of UFOs would expose their impotence to control the phenomenon. They may also wish others who influence public opinion to be silent until they do have better control.

The French COMETA (Committee for In-Depth Studies) that produced several years ago is one major exception. CUROS (the Center for UFO Studies) states on their website that [6]:

",,, the COMETA report is prefaced by General Bernard Norlain of the French Air Force, former director of IHEDN (the Institute of Advanced Studies for National Defense). It begins with a preamble by Andre Lebeau, the former president of the National Center for Space Studies (Centre National D'etudes Spatiales) or CNES (the French equivalent of NASA). The group itself -- and collective authorship of the report -- is an association of experts, many of whom are or have been auditors of IHEDN. It is presided over by General Denis Letty of the Air Force, the former auditor (FA) of IHEDN."

As president of COMETA, General Letty points to the main theme of the report which is that:

"… the accumulation of well-documented observations compels us now to consider all hypotheses as to the origin of UFOs. Especially the extraterrestrial hypothesis."

But in how many U.S. news reports was this important information revealed? The silence of the U.S. press was deafening. Without the media confirming legitimacy to the subject by conveying these reports to the broader public, the field is exiled to ridicule and sensualism; political will is hobbled; academic scientific investigation is denied support; and tantalizing leads are lost in the murkiness of national security archives. It is therefore not surprising that it is not on the Progressive (or any other political) slate. Still, thousands report seeing UFOs each year.

Rather than an urban legend that simmers quietly in the background (as the elites would want us to believe), we feel that the process may be relentless and growing -- if not in numbers of sightings then in

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public awareness. For example, while we acknowledge many confounding factors in statistics from the National UFO Reporting Center, the results at least indicate that many people are seeing unexplained phenomenon.

[StealthSkater note: I don't believe these statistics are accurate. From what I can tell, the number of sightings started in the mid-1940s, increased rapidly with nuclear weapons' testing in the 50s and 60s, then fell off in the late-70s until they disappeared in the late-80s with the worldwide moratorium on all further atmospheric and underground nuke tests. (Of course, some countries which didn't sign the treaty still do limited testing.)]

So how, we may ask, is this paradox sustained? To answer, let us look at how our culture is constructed. First, the Media …

Media

From a Progressive perspective, the Media is owned by corporate elites who also manipulate the Government for financial gain and power. Corporate media, in general, belittles the legitimate study of UFOs while trivializing the phenomenon as "entertainment.

In The Missing Times [7], Terry Hansen observes that while local media may report UFO sightings, national media of record (such as the New York Times and major television networks) do not. he describes how news can be divided into "official news" and "folk news". And so the field is relegated to the status of inconsequential diversion without expending resources on in-depth coverage or wide dissemination. [StealthSkater note: It could be that the ordinary person only has an interest in news which directly affects his/her life. UFO stories have been around for at least 50 years. And yet the average person remains unconvinced that if they exist that they had an effect on jobs, pollution, and existence in general. Add to that "crying wolf" too many times. If these things do exist, either the entities are taking great care not to mess with us or our government is doing a

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good job of keeping them at bay. Or they don't exist physically but are accessible through quantum mental processes (which is a whole different subject and one which I personally like).]

Hansen well describes how local reports keep coming in while a rare few UFO reports actually do make it papers such as the New York Times:

"It was as if they (New York Times) had suffered collective amnesia. Even about information that had appeared within their own publication!" [8]

Hansen describes in detail the interplay and overlap of the intelligence community and the media in times of war (i.e., authoritarian journalism) and times of peace (which are really times of preparing for war). So while the media often uses the phrase from the X-files that "the Truth is out there", we feel that this obfuscates the issue. Instead, we say that "the Truth is here."

In the Progressive press, we can think of only 2 examples in which UFOs are given legitimacy. A free newspaper (HopeDance) distributed in California and an online newsletter ("NoFlyBy News").

Politics:

From a political angle, we see a lack of courage and curious blindness in regards to the UFO issue. For example, when thousands saw a strange array of lights over the skies of Phoneix in March, 1997, this was explained aware of "flares". But many reports stated that no smoke was visible and that the lights did not drop as would be expected from falling flares. It this were an advanced secret craft of U.S. origin, does not the public have a right to know when it hovers over its skies for a length of time in a major city?

Francis Barwood was a city council member in Phoneix at the time and called for an inquiryu. But it dissolved when then Governor Fife Symington held a press conference sating that they had they culpti. Then a person was brought in wearing a goofy green alien mask. Thus peer pressure and ridicule kept dissent and investigation in check. Now 7 years later, this incident is being reviewed again.

Social Scientists:

Sociologists relegate the matter to "urban legend" in which various anecdotes are simply ornamentation on an illegitimate premise. They attribute it to a psychological coping mechanism in response to complex world events. Yet critics do little or no consistent field work with UFO research groups to get first-hand knowledge.

Sociologists like Jody Dean in her book Aliens in America [9] focus on the context of the UFO phenomenon. She suggests that we may live in a world where "truth is fluid" because our social world is networked and highly scientific. For instance, our concept of when Life begins or ends may be subject to our value systems and our state of scientific knowledge.

She also elucidates how our times -- in the minds of some -- are permeated with mistrust of the government and the scientific establishment. The attempt to deconstruct the UFO phenomenon as a result of its environment -- specifically the UFOlogists' use of academically- or scientifically-approved methods and styles as a legitimizing too to construct the field (note: she would probably categorize this present text in this vein) -- must surely appeal to the skeptics.

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But we feel that this misses the point. By staying outside the experience, you miss what is important in the experience itself. And what is missed may include (merely) some profound technical as well as social revolutions.

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Hard Scientists

Hard scientists are prevented from exploring the issue for many well-known reasons. Namely (1) that there is no research grant support and (2) when they investigate on their own, they face ridicule. Also there may be an institutional bias against scientific research that stretches into "anomalous events".

The numerous political restraints placed n students and professional scientists in general are well outlined in a book (which is not focused on UFOs) called Disciplined Minds by Jeff Scmidt. He describes how students focus on passing tests. Failing to accept the priorities of the exam places the student at risk of expulsion [10].

Equally, in the work place employees have to have the "right" sense of what is significant or else risk being ostracized [11]. Then without the support of their peers, without the f9inancial support from the government, and without academic or commercial support, they are limited to glacial advancements in narrowly-defined fields.

A personal anecdote portrays this standard mechanism. I asked one academic physicist (and ardent debunker) why he had not joined any groups or actively went out to look for anomalous reports. He said words to the effect that "there was enough pseudo-science already coming to him" and he didn't need to look for any more.

We find this approach biased and blinkered. Like any field, it takes work and curiosity to become informed. We feel it may be part of our task to establish dialogues with individual scientists where we can find common ground.

Returning to our main theme, in order to put the issue on the slate of Progressives, the UFO/Progressive/Spiritual movement must -- at its heart -- be one of raising consciousness. We seek to lead to the accretion of media, political, and social awareness that will lead to the dawn of a new paradigm. We feel that by changing the way things are looked at, we are raising consciousness.

From a Progressive perspective, it often takes centuries for the truth to surface. For xample, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States opens up and validates what had been a void in textual recording of American history (namely the lives of the common man). Furthermore, published works such as Zinn's promote other works that extend these ideas. Perhaps these books provide a basis to defend activists from attacks by those who buy the lies promulgated by the elite. Examples of the manipulation and victimization of the masses by elites can be taught to future generations with a formal structure for telling these truths.

In our case, by documenting the media record of UFO events, we hope to influence the way that future UFO events are recognize and recorded and, in the process, change our culture's world outlook. Acknoledging the UFO presence as a manifestation of ET civilzations visting Earth will radically alter the way that each individual perceives his/her place in Universe. The collective expression of this transformation would be of monumental historic importance. When these reports are more widely disseminated and integrated, they may alter individual behavior in the larger social forum. We feel this altered individual behavior would thus alter institutional behavior.

While Progressives view the UFO movement as existing at the bottom of their priority list, the UFO/Spiritual/Progressive movement argues that it is an appropriate response to the systemic failure of current tactics to adequately respond to World ills. In particular, we feel that solutions are irreconcilable with the status quo and suggest that it be pushed to the top of the priority list.

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Indeed, it provides the prerequisite shock necessary for a change in the current paradigm of separation between peoples, exploitation for profit, and national-or-religious factionalism. This shock may, in fact, be of the mildest form as opposed to the potential shocks of the depletion of oil, scarcity of water, and terrorism.

We offer overburdened Progressives the option of taking a step back and looking for answers in a radically new way. That is, we see Progressives as "flat" and reluctant to make cultural statements outside of issues of race and class privilege.

In this way, many Progressives may be only as conscious as their political opponents. They assume the World's burning problems can only be addressed one way and must -- for all generations! -- be address one way (in groups and against institutions). We question this assumption and feel that pitting Progressive political groups against oppressive institutions may only perpetuate the status quo.

Still, this begs the question of how can Progressives rally around the UFO issue when sightings are so rare? Our answer is that view the question from the reverse perspective. It is not how few sightings there are but how many. A Roper poll in 2002 found that 1-in-7 people in America have had a UFO encounter of the "First" (i.e., distant sighting), "Second" (i.e., close encounter), or "Third" (i.e., close encounter with occupants seen) kind [12].

And not all those who have had UFO sightings are unsophisticated bumpkins. President Carter acknowledged witnessing a UFO. Equally, individuals and interest groups focuses on UFOlogy are robust. There are branches of MUFON in almost every state and throughout the World.

The Proactive Approach. How proactive does one get?

Level I - encouraging people to consider the ET hypothesis

Still many then ask: "So what if I consider the ET hypothesis? Or what if I do see a UFO? What difference will that make? People still have to get up in the morning and go to work regardless."

Our answer here is that raising consciousness may be a goal just in itself. It brings with it a rising saying 'Yes!' to the World and an opening up of new possibilities for long-term change. A deep internalized sense of ET life in the Universe would alter our approach and perception of the World. It changes the predominant topic for dialog and suggests a more visionary one.

With a new paradigm come raised expectations and therefore novel actions. That is, people do not take action when they are beaten down. But when things get better, there are higher expectations of what can be done. And there is much to be done!

As demands for world community increase, people who derive profit from war will have to step aside. In this sense, our proposal is one that mandates proactive behavior. That is, we can choose national -- and increasingly regional -- competition and war. Or we can choose world unity via a shared curiosity.

We can choose unilateral or bi-lateral global dominance backed by increasingly repressive regimes and the corresponding terrorism that this repression brings. Or we can move forward with the intent of better understanding -- and perhaps joining -- ET civilization. [StealthSkater note: of course, Mr. Kirsch is assuming here that ET is a "good" guy.]

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This is not to discard the current and important Progressive actions such as the global justice movement. But to add to it such that diverse forces could be brought into cooperative, non-violent, and revolutionary action. Indeed, the global justice movement is a necessary and important aspect of future ET contact as we will discuss later. Equally, the ET contact movement compounds the strengths of the global justice movement by adding to it the powers of entities who are millions-of-years in advance of our own.

Some may reasonably argue caution in regards to interacting with ETs. But then, faced with our self-destruction or Orwellian, paranoid scenarios of fascist global domination, we may consider the rationale for going forward and finding out just who the ETs are. The vanguard has this opportunity. And we suggest that those on the edge may not want to "miss the party".

Another way to look at this as a "Progressive" is to consider that many revolutions are begun by looking at anomalous observations with fresh eyes and objective detachment and then defending them in the brutal arena of social discourse. For example, when telescopic observations did not converge with Newtonian mathematical calculations, Einstein brought forth his concept of Relativity that showed that space could be curved. Centuries of thought were expanded and revised.

Of course, the ET contact movement is a unique social and philosophical movement. And importantly, we acknowledge that conviction of this sort (that would accept this radical hypothesis) can only come from the transforming effect of personal experience. Furthermore, we say that personal experience of this sort is grounded deeply in intuition. It is not merely intellectually maintained but felt in the body as a "knowing" in the same way that a musician makes us feel that they have hit the right note at the right time.

Level II the Very Proactive Approach

We are struck by the profundity of Dr. Steven Greer's revolutionary hypothesis. Namely that one could proactively induce contact with ETs by going to places that anecdotally report sightings of UFOs and by practicing Remote-Viewing and Remote-Vectoring. These terms may require some explanation for the uninitiated.

Remote-Viewing is a technique for viewing environments or things at a distance by meditative practices that quiet the mind and allow visual impressions to arise. There are many techniques for inducing remote-viewing.

Now skeptics may say "Wait a minute! This sounds like imagination. Where is the critical thinking and scientific approach?" Here we acknowledge remote-viewing is a quasi-scientific (though not pseudo-scientific) endeavor. We accept a priori the existence of the mind extending beyond the body. We acknowledge that it is difficult to show the mind in the lab (although we will later present a scientific experiment that would support the existence of the "mind" as apart from the "brain"). There are routine protocols that -- when utilize -- anecdotally report statistically-significant results in support of the hypothesis. [StealthSkater: RV, OBEs, NDEs, Lucid Dreaming, and consciousness manipulation have been archived at http://www.stealthskater.com/PX.htm#RV ,

http://www.stealthskater.com/Science.htm#Emergent , http://www.stealthskater.com/Science.htm#Lucid , and

http://www.stealthskater.com/Consciousness.htm ]

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But let us suspend disbelief for a moment, digress from our main argument, and consider the following. The Universe is composed of Consciousness or mind ("God", if you will). We are all parts of this Mind that we say has Its own logic and omniscient perspective. We all have our own individual "spaces-of-logic" or logic perspectives in an infinite realm of logic and perspectives. Mind is both self-aware and connected to other parts. For some, the Universe is made up a "holographic whole". (That is, each individual has their own perception of this whole. By stepping out of the self and into the imagination, one can access other parts.) [StealthSkater note: reminiscent of the "Q"-continuum in Star Trek.]

It is also worth mentioning something of the history of remote-viewing. We suggest that RV is probably something that has been around for millennia. It may have been of value in our survival under stress conditions (e.g., literally "seeing" a way out).

Anecdotally, it has been developed in certain indigenous cultures where it was/is often facilitated with psychoactive drugs. It is probably an aspect of our innate powers of mind. But it is largely ignored in Western thought because of the difficulties of scientific testing and repeat experiments. It is well documented that remote-viewing has been researched by military organizations. And they have done so because it worked -- though not as consistently as they wished. Perhaps it did not work consistently because examples of applied PSI were not studied too deeply so as to understand its mechanism. Which would contradict the core military value of separation between peoples and groups.) Various commercial groups have also offered RV training.

Remote-vectoring follows from remote-vewing in the sense that if one is willing to entertaint he notion that one can receive images, then one can also send them. Thus one could theoretically transmit imagery in successive stages such that -- hypothetically -- alien beings (or their craft) could choose toi move their craft to that location. (For example, viewing our Solar System, Earth, continent, state, city, and local area.)

We acknowledge that this sounds really "far out" and will try to further explain the intellectual basis upon which it is grounded. We only ask that

you hold on for the ride a bit longer. [StealthSkater note: British inventor and RVer Tom Skeggs has proposed a device which would allow for holographic projections of an otherwise invisible remote-viewer that would allow for real-time interactions => doc pdf URL .]

Returning to the model of consciousness as being in (but not of) the body, images can then exist independently. Images can be transmitted as well as received (much like a television). Consider that a TV camera can record photons (invisible particles of light) as electrical charges; transforms those into packets on (invisible) radio waves; transmit the waves through an antenna; and that we can then receive them through the television set which recreates the images.

In short, we cannot (as yet) control the effects of the mind as readily and consistently as would be ideal. Yet we posit that something is there. And this can be shown in the lab.

In one scientific experiment in regards to telepathy, subjects who knew each other were separated and placed in isolated boxes. Strobe lights were shone into the eyes if one. Statistically-significant jumps -- in sync and in phase -- appeared in the optic center EEG readings of the other. This was a repeatable and verifiable experiment mentioned by University of Washington physicist Amit Goaswami [13].

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The basic question then is whether remote-viewing and remote-vectoring actually work. Anecdotally, it is highly successful (>95%). We would like to see controlled experiments performed in an academic environment. [StealthSkater note: I don't know in what regard Mr. Kirsch defines "successful". If it was, you wouldn't need a court system to decide who was guilty or innocent. RV has been notoriously difficult for multiple RVers to report exactly the same things given the same "target". The NSA and DIA (and probably the CIA as well) developed rigorous protocols that pair an outside moderator with an RV-er who admonishes the latter only to report what they "see" without trying to interpret what is going on. The results are later analyzed with additional information to try to piece together a good picture. It is thought that perhaps RVers can "see" different quantum possibilities (or timelines) of the same event but in parallel universes, thus adding to the problem of what is occurring at a certain target location at a certain time in our Universe.]

It is worth noting that some consider remote-viewing as an "occult" (taboo, spiritually negative) practice -- disturbed people playing with powerful forces in a misguided way. However, we feel that there could also be sincere, good-willed people searching for ways to improve life on Earth.

For example, some people have used RV to find missing persons and -- in our case -- contact from benevolent beings in an enormous Universe. We acknowledge that the issue is complex, multi-modal, and requires further debate. Although I (Paul Kirsch) feel the proactive approach should move forward cautiously (note: concerns will be discussed shortly), this not void our hypothesis.

Perhaps it may be understood this way. When I asked one friend (who never had any anomalous experiences -- at least that he could recall) about ET contact, he said: "I don't know how would deal with that. You'd have no proscribed means of responding. I guess you would just watch in awe." Precisely!

We will also not run from the question of the Mind-Brain dichotomy entirely for it provides another example of the central role of interpretations of Spirituality in our future.

Let us pause for a moment and consider what we are suggesting. We are saying that theoretically, tactics of the Mind could be formally applied to contacting ETs and -- in the process -- promote a better World.

[StealthSkater note: There is also the case of former ELINT Sgt. Dan Sherman who allegedly participated in computer-based "intuitive communications" training with an off-planet ET species. "Project Preserve Destiny" was to continue ET contact (I emphasize "continue") when a future cataclysm was to wipe out all conventional forms of radio-type comms. Sherman said that he was told that certain people were biological engineered to have these psychic abilities => doc pdf URL .]

Developing a Socially-Palatable Model

We acknowledge that any form of proactive contact is likely to be highly socially-unpalatable. Therefore we would like to address how this might be handled.

First, we consider the potential that this may have as a youth movement. We see youth as having the prerequisite idealism, willingness to test boundaries, energy, and sense of excitement that the hypothesis suggests.

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Nevertheless, we acknowledge that this may be an approach that is entirely unrealistic given the current zeitgeist. And the ETs know this. Indeed, contact may be a process that takes centuries where we are becoming accustomed and acclimatized incrementally across various levels of society. The least xenophogic people may be the messengers or translators to the most xenophogic. Because we realize this movement may take decades to disseminate, we sometimes joke that we are a hundred years ahead of our time.

There may also be technological developments as well that will help us come up to the level of ETs such as neural implants and nanotechnology that improve our well-being and the accompanying ethical debates that will ensue. (see "Natural Born Cyborgs" by Andy Clark.)

But without going too far, if we stop and simply accept our initial premise that ETs are visiting us, then we may hypothesize a radical outcome. Namely that from here on out, there may be more contact and ETs will become a permanent part of our culture.

One reason for this is as follows. (1) They've made an investment in visiting us. And (2), they have a long history of staging encounters. Therefore, they are not going away. We are going to evolve together. It is just that now -- at this unique time in History -- we are beginning to become more conscious of their reality and to question (at all levels) what they might be.

We thus may have a future where cooperation between ETs and humans is the norm and we're heading to explore together. We may then make (1) small proactive steps in raising awareness or (2) highly proactive steps in encouraging contact. And on their part, the ETs may be slowly preparing to meet us for contact by repeated short exposures with a limited (though broad) selection of people. We call this process of introduction "The Dance".

This then brings up the issue of ET intent …

ET Intent

The nature of their intent is unknown. Yet we may observe that (1) there has been no mass destruction yet and (2) that they are capable of traveling vast distances and hav not destroyed their own kind with these powers.

Indeed, we believe that the vastness of space may quarantine minds that cannot work together cooperatively and would self-destruct before going very far. The general trend towards increased sightings (or at least reports of sightings) suggest a gradualistic approach.

Also analysis of intent may be confused by the cultural and scientific paradigms in which they were viewed. In the Biblical era, Ezekiel's wheel and the star of Bethlehem may have been UFOs perceived as a message from the Divine. In the 1940s, "foo fighters" were observed though they were thought to be enemy advanced technology. In the 1980-1990s, a variety of "abduction" experiences were reported that were interpreted by some as virtual reality ethics testing -- exploration of feeling states and mind-body perception. (See Beyond My Wildest Dreams by Kim Carlsberg and Darryl Anka.)

All of these perceptions may have been inaccurate to the extent that they were limited by the level of awareness developed at the time in which they were experienced.

More specifically, we are at odds with the generally accepted doctrine of the nature of UFOS as put forth by the UFO ghetto. That being that UFOs are hard metal craft with beings inside. Rather, we see a

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broader palette of less defined forms of energy interacting with human consciousness which we think of as "This Otherness We Call 'ET'" or TOWCET.

The Spiritual Component

Evidence from many contactee narratives suggest that aliens are interested in spiritual issues. Our first efforts may be placed on raising consciousness with the spiritual practices of focused thought, meditation, service, good will, and conscious action. A by-product of raised conscious may be ET contact. As mentioned earlier in relation to things being interpreted according to the times in which they occurred, this may reflect earlier accounts by religious persons on angelic encounters.

It is our opinion that meditation encourages contact because(1) with more settled minds, we may be more sensitive to our environment and anomalous events;(2) the aliens themselves may be interested in higher consciousness; or at least this is the type -- a

refined and self-aware consciousness -- that we would like to bring in or resonate; and(3) meditation and remote-viewing are related states of mind.

Furthermore, meditation may be useful because we may be more mentally composed -- and respond less egotistically and defensively -- when we have the truly radical experience of contact. [StealthSkater note: It should also be noted that RV abilities have been acquired after a traumatic shock (e.g., head injury) to the body. There have been efforts to replicate that in others (typically intelligence agents) by using psychoactive drugs and -- to a lesser extent -- other measures such as ELF/VLF transmissions. And of course, debate continues as to whether the visions "seen" are real or hallucinatory.]

Finally, travel in space may involve mind as may be illustrated in the following experiment.

An interesting and simple laboratory test has been conceived in regards to space travel and the mind. Place a laser closely above and a gravity meter close beside a person. Check whether the laser light is bent or the gravity meter changes when the person is awake or dreaming. If careful tests show any alteration of these measurements, then interstellar travel by warping space may have to do with the properties of the mind more than we thought. (See "Dr. Humphrey Jumping LightYears: the Evolution of Interstellar Travel.")

Also, there may be a combination of mental and physical processes involved in interstellar and communication. UNITEL, Inc. -- a company in Oregon -- suggests a means for interstellar travel by macroscopic Quantum Tunneling. The craft would resemble an electron and tunnel through space-time protected by a nano-assembled energy shell. (see "The Journal of Interdimensional Travel" by Paul Kirsch with UNITEL => doc pdf URL-doc URL-pdf ]

If we look at the religious and social aspect, the great religions of the World often refer to the "Gods in Heaven" or seek answers from Heaven above (see RealSpace: the Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet by Paul Levinson). So there may be some natural connection between the mystery of space and spirituality. We just seek to make it more conscious.

The social consequences of contact or government disclosure may be euphoric or chaotic. If one takes the former outlook, the peoples of the World would become more united. There could be an end of war and a sense of wonder would permeate our consciousness. There could -- over time -- be cultural and technological exchange.

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Some other outcomes from a euphoric perspective include Humanity's possibility of interstellar travel. It may also include consciousness as playing a primary role in communication as we have discussed above. Indeed, many people who claim to be "contactees" have had telepathy experiences. Technological innovations may be downloaded via telepathy. [StealthSkater note: if I am not mistaken, I think a principal UNITEL employee said that he was being taught "new physics" via such a telepathic or dream-like download of sorts by those who occupied the teardrop-shaped craft that he and others saw in the Cascade mountains of Oregon.]

On the other hand, if one takes a chaotic outlook, the military could wage a hopeless war against ETs and religious extremists could hunt down large numbers of ordinary people who have had extraordinary contact experiences. Other possible sequelae resulting from such a perspective include a waste of resources. Some say that this is already occurring. A trillion dollars of defense spending is missing!

This may be in line with what Carol Rosin (assistant to former NASA director Wernher von Braun) said before he died. Dr. von Braun told her that first there would be regional wars. Then terrorist wars. And then a conflict with aliens. Diseases could be a form of scapegoating and justifying war. Some people suggest that the STS-80 Space Shuttle video footage (in which objects launched from Earth appear to be aimed at an object in space) show evidence of a secret war with aliens.

Current Status Regarding Progress/UFO/Spiritual Movement

We see this movement as hindered by a right-wing coup d'état of the Nation and a culture of fear. The Progressive movement is united to defeat Bush. All other issues and experiments have been placed to the side.

Still, good work goes on in some quarters to clear up the murkiness of government secret knowledge. An example of this is journalist Leslie Kean's lawsuit using the Freedom of Information Org filed against NASA in regards to the Kecksburg, PA incident. In this case, an anomalous craft was seen to land in Kecksburg and witnesses were held off while the military whisked a bell-shaped object away. [StealthSkater note: if some container/device holding a nuclear weapon was being retrieved/transferred (perhaps due to a transport aircraft's malfunction), then a highly-covert military operation would take place under brutal security. I'm not saying this is what happened at Kecksburg but the event sounds similar to these other rare occurrences.]

The promise of Ms. Keane's approach may lay in redirecting the argument from searching for UFO evidence to searching for explanation for unexplained phenomena. The important work of Stephen Bassett and the First Annual Exopolitics Expo is another example. [StealthSkater note: Dr. Michael Salla also writes on "Exopolitics" and the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis => doc pdf URL ]

SUMMARY: the Weave of our Braid

Progressive Politics is a struggle for social justice. The struggle has come to an impasse with the corporate control and concentration of the media, government, and judiciary. Our leaders have alienated much of the World and will not listen to the people of our Nation or the United Nations.

The Spiritual Search provides solace and strength to this struggle. It enables us to first become aware of our feelings and then to selectively detach from them as necessary. It teaches us to have faith that the movement is bigger than any one individual. It lacks direct power but provides access to interesting powers of the mind including unity with the Earth, the Universe, and All that is.

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The ET Hypothesis (ETH) has long existed in the realm of the social outcast (i.e., the "kooks" and "nuts" of Society), albeit often placed there by the deliberate actions of the elites to control Society through fear in already alienated society. We feel that it merits a fair review.

To us, the ETH is as beautiful as the stars and as thrilling as the farthest stretch of our imagination. Yet it lacks practical tools to validate its existence in the social forum and to advance its cause beyond observation. These practical tools -- which include the development of community -- will be discussed in our next paper.

We acknowledge that the UFO/Spiritual/Progressive braid is difficult to grasp and accept. We believe that one of the reasons is because it is anti-establishment. That is, it may irritate both the elite and the masses. It may irritate the former because it is a challenge to their maintenance of power. It may irritate the latter because of the reasonable fear that change could make things worse.

But we feel that it may challenge and alter the status quo because it approaches issues of social injustice from "outside the box". Grounded in personal experience and behavior -- and along with progressive institutions -- we see a unique potential for this movement. Indeed, it is by personal change that we see the greatest hope for institutional change.

By

● using the tools of Spirituality (awareness of one's environment, stilling the mind from distraction, opening up identification with the body to identification with Universal Consciousness)

● by accepting the ET Hypothesis (based on personal experience and validated by the number of others with similar anomalous experiences) and by taking this knowledge and insights to the day-to-day world of Progressive action (e.g., holding meetings, talking, debating, "spreading the word"),

the very awareness of ET may render many of our social concerns obsolete and guide Humanity to a new civilized vista.

The braid is as challenging as the 3 paths of which it is composed. And yet it is as plain as out destiny.

References

1. Ann Druffel, Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science, 2003, p. 243.

2. David Grinspoon, Lonely Planets: the Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, 2003, p. 375.

3. ibid, p. 375.

4. Ann Druffel, Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science, 2003, p. 262.

5. http://www.greensangha.org

6. http://www.curofs.cometa.html

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7. Terry Hansen, The Missing Time News, "Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-Up, 2000.

8. ibid, p. 41

9. Jody Dean, Aliens in America / Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace, 1998

10. Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds, p. 161

11. ibid, p. 81

12. Roper Poll conducted Aug. 23-25, 2002 => www.freedomofinfo.org/poll/roper01.html

13. "The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox in the Brain: the Transferred Potential", J. Grinberd-Zylberbaum[i], M. Delaflor[i], Lt. Attie[Ai] and A. Goswami[ii]i. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Instituto Nacional Para El Estudio de la

Conciencia, Mexicoii. Department of Physics and the Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Euregen,

Oregon

Bibliography

1. Joseph Burkes, On Mysticism, Marxism, and the ET Presence, 1998.

2. Joseph Burkes, UFOlogy's Fundamental Challenge, 1998.

3. Joseph Burkes, Cosmic Peace, 1999.

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